Visuwords.com is a free, online graphical thesaurus. Ender a word in the search fiesl and othe related words appear. Each related word is color-coded based on its part of speech. and linked to the original word using a series of shapes anc colors. Amazing site! One idea is to demonstrate how this site visually represents a word and then have students create their own visual representations of their vocabulary words. The students's own creations could be down on paper or created on a smart board document.

Another great tool for building vocabulary is the Photographic Dictionary. This site would work well for grades 3-8. The photographic dictionary illustrates over five thousand common words with beautiful photos, and has many more common words sorted into categories. You can use this site as a learning tool or a children's picture dictionary, or just to browse to look at the pictures!

One of my favorite picture dictionaries is from opdome.com.This dictionary is for the very youngest of our students or perhaps would be good to use as an ESL or foreign language tool. Students can click on a category of words. They then can click on individual pictures and each picture will pronouce the name of the image. Very cute!

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Melanie Lewis

Hi, my name is Melanie Lewis. I am an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher for Amherst County Public Schools, located in the beautiful state of Virginia. I LOVE my job! I get to work on my hobby, anything that has to do with computers. I get to work with teachers and students, and I am definitely a people person. Plus, I DO NOT have to give grades. Wonderful, huh? Let me know how I can help you better integrate technology into your classroom.